Tesla Model 3 Complaints (2023)

429 consumer complaints on file.

#11547002September 27, 2023
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING, BACK OVER PREVENTION: REARVIEW SYSTEM BRAKING
While driving on a two lane highway I experience daily ghost braking incidents. While doing 75, in both cruise and autopilot mode, the car will slam on the brakes when approaching a semi in the right lane. Today it even swerved to the right without the semi moving out of its lane. I also experience panic braking if a car crosses the lanes in front of me even if it is 500m away and the crossing car even left the road before braking occurs.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11546747September 27, 2023
SERVICE BRAKES, VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL
When cruise control is engaged, the vehicle suddenly decelerates, (at times dropping speed by more than 20 mph in less than 2 seconds). This occurs as often as 5-10 times in a single 60mi trip, and occurs at least once per trip on this same route (divided highway, sometimes with hills, often with no other cars ahead of or around the vehicle, speed 60-70mph) These events are unsafe because unexpected braking is a hazard for following cars and my passengers. My job as a driver is to be as predictable as possible, but when I use the cruise control the car behaves unpredictability Problem reported to dealer, confirmed by remote diagnostic, and car was serviced but the problem got worse. There are no warning lamps or error messages displayed in conjunction with these sudden braking events. First appeared when the car reached 2000miles on odometer
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11546652September 26, 2023
SERVICE BRAKES, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL
When on a recent trip from Salt Lake City to Denver Via I 15 to hwy 6 and on I 70 When it was in cruse control and also auto pilot the car would on it's own brake. Some of the time it would brake very harshly others it would not be so violet ,but would certainly be some thing that could cause a very bad accident. The only solution Tesla service would offer was to go on a test drive to see it happen. This could take posably many miles, and then said they did not have a solution.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11546490September 25, 2023
STEERING
I parked the vehicle. When I returned to it and was about to drive, the steering wheel became too stiff and I had to apply extreme manual force to turn. The code UI_a020 appeared and the message “Steering assistance reduced. Steering may required increased effort.” It happened twice on the same day. I had to stop driving the car.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11546437September 25, 2023
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING
Vehicle suddenly brakes while in autopilot with no road obstructions. This has happened to me several times and I'm concerned that if someone is following me too close this may cause a collision.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11546138September 23, 2023
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL
The cruise control was set at 70 MPH. The car braked itself and tried to stop itself even though I had no cars or objects in front of me. I had to apply the accelerator to get it to out of stopping itself. It happened twice in a short amount of time on that morning. The car is available for inspection. This is a safety issue as it could have caused an accident if I had someone too close behind me while driving on freeway I-75. I have not had the car inspected as this just happened yesterday 09/22/2023 and today is 09/23/2023. There was no warning prior to this happening and no issues with the car. Again this happened on 09/22/2023 for the first time. Thank You.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11546105September 22, 2023
STEERING, LANE DEPARTURE: WARNING
Power steering stopped working when the car starts up, Cannot steer the wheel at all in PDNR. Basically cannot steer the car at all and it is not drivable.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11545791September 21, 2023
VISIBILITY/WIPER
The wipers come on for no reason and there is no way to turn them off. Since the wiper blades are running on a dry windshield the visibility decreases considerably after it runs for some time
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11545702September 20, 2023
STEERING
The power steering failed while I was backing out of a parking space. I was unable to turn the wheel and almost ran into another car. I was able to use all my strength to turn the wheel and took it to the dealership Tesla said "there was a fault within the steering rack that caused the power steering to go out, therefore we had to replace this part" There was no warning messages about the problem before, during or after the steering went out. If this were to happen to anyone that did not have significant strength, it could have caused a major accident. If it went out while I was driving on any other road, I would have been in an accident for sure.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11545587September 20, 2023
STEERING
I received an error message while driving that the steering assist was turned off, and I was unable to the car. This has happened twice in the last week.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11545400September 19, 2023
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING
Cruise control set to 82mph on interstate with no cars nearby. Car slams on brakes on multiple different cruise control sessions. Dangerous for other cars that could be driving behind me and could cause me to lose control of the vehicle.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11545213September 18, 2023
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL, SERVICE BRAKES, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING
I was driving on I-35 from Kansas City to Des Moines on 9-11-23, and three times the car experienced phantom braking (i.e. the car suddenly braked for no apparent reason) while the adaptive cruise control was activated. During these instances the car would suddenly brake and slow down and on one occasion I had to accelerate immediately to avoid possibly being rear ended. On all occasions there were no obstacles on the road or cars within 1/4 of a mile ahead of me.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11545050September 17, 2023
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL, STEERING, SERVICE BRAKES
On 09/11/2023 at approx. 6AM CST, my wife went to a nearby Walmart store for groceries. As she was parking the car in the parking space, the car started to accelerate by itself and went around the parking lot in random directions. She couldn't control the steering and brake despite the continuous tries. It was such a traumatic experience, and the car went on to hit couple of other parked cars and the cart return stations in the parking lot. After few seconds of random self-drive in multiple directions of parking lot, it finally came to a halt as it got on a curb that flattened the tires. By God's grace, the car stopped right before entering the main busy road due to flat tires and also no pedestrians at that time. Otherwise, the situation could have been worse as the car was going in an uncontrollable manner. The incident was reported to 911 and they got the car towed to a towing garage. We got the incident report from the police department. They also have the CCTV footage of this incident. We also have the dashcam videos recorded by TESLA and pictures taken after the incident. I will provide any supporting documentation you might need to understand this incident and address the issue. We are trying to come out of the trauma from this incident and would like to bring this issue to the attention of all concerned parties for next steps.
Crash:
Yes
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11544927September 16, 2023
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
It happened in a parking lot around 8:20 pm on 09.13.23. When I slowly moved to parking space car suddenly accelerated, jumped over raised pavement for pedestrian walking, hit parked car on the other side of walking path, continue going with uncontrollable high speed across the parking, then car slowed down and I finally parked. Woman who witnessed accident and called the police told the police officer that she saw brake lights of my car were on. Two women from the car I hit showed me the markings from my tires on pavement. My husband who arrived to the place of accident by this time took pictures of these marks and next morning we return back to take another pictures and video. My car's odometer reading was less than 100 miles. We are having problem of uploading our pictures. We can supply to you our pictures and video if you need them.
Crash:
Yes
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11544828September 15, 2023
STEERING
Steering wheel froze while attempting to turn across opposing traffic into shopping center nearly resulting in an accident. Was able to forcefully turn into a parking lot and turn off the car. Steering notification came on. After ten minutes car seemed to resume back to normal. This caused insurmountable anxiety and I was unable to return to work. Car was towed to service center and estimated repair will take 2-3 days. This was a brand new car I bought for safety yet the safety of me and my children were jeopardized!
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11544757September 15, 2023
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL
While driving late at night at highway speeds (interstate Hwy), the car applied the brakes suddenly and without cause, with no cars in the proximity of my vehicle. The car was set in cruise control mode (adaptive.) It appeared that the vehicle may have picked up a reflection from the highway striping. This occurred two times during a single trip of approximately 200 miles.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11544569September 14, 2023
STEERING
Power steering is intermittently and unpredictably failing. The issue has occurred approximately 10 times in total and has occurred both while exiting parking spots and while driving on the road. The vehicle is available for inspection upon request and has been given to Tesla Service Center for review. The service representative was not able to reproduce the issue and the vehicle was returned. Especially while driving, loss of power steering could force me into an accident, as I'm not able to control the vehicle in a reliable manner. When the issue occurs, I receive an error that says "steering assist reduced, steering may require increased effort."
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11544531September 14, 2023
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING
On 09/08/2023 while the vehicle was engaged in Autopilot/Traffic Aware Cruise Control and at highway speeds, the vehicle suddenly braked with no visible / reasonable cue from the surroundings. Minutes later, it suddenly braked again suddenly and without any visible cause but with more force. After this, I stopped using this feature of the vehicle for the remainder of our trip. A similar event occurred around Apil 2023 and when I reported this to the Tesla Service Center they replaced both the right side and left side repeater cameras (faulty). The first incident of this nature occurred around a week after taking ownership in late October: Again at highway speeds, the vehicle suddenly and abruptly braked without cause. The Service Center was notified but they found no issue with the car. This type of behavior places myself and my family at risk of being rear ended with the abrupt nature of this kind of braking (sudden, abrupt and with no cause). It also places the vehicles that happen to be following me at risk with this sudden braking behavior - the braking is not gradual. After I reported the most recent incident, the service center did not find any faults with the hardware and said that "these behaviors are a limitation of software in the system."
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11544391September 13, 2023
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING
The car does phantom braking on the highway when using cruise control. It is usually caused by a truck in the neighboring lane applying it's brakes, but not entering my lane.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11544368September 13, 2023
STEERING
Loss of power steering. Car started normally, but with no warning from the car, the steering wheel could be turned only with extreme effort. I tried to make a circle around the house, but barely avoided hitting other parked cars and called Tesla service.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0

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